Case electrical grounding

[ochadd]

I've been having trouble for years with cats chewing on cords. Anytime I walk away from the computer and come back my screen flickers and audio will glitch as soon as I touch the mouse or keyboard. This also happens if a cat touches the desk, monitor, cables, or case. Happens all the time. I blew up two Schiit audio Magni Heresy units and two power supplies for each. They eventually let me return them and I got a Schiit Magnius. The flickering continues but this one hasn't blown up yet, been 1.5 years. I've since wired the steel desk frame to the computer chassis to try and help grounding. Using non conductive TOSLINK optical audio cable from soundcard to DAC/amp. I've taken a multimeter and verified correct polarity at the outlet. I run a $600 APC AVR UPS and I've tried surge protectors before and after the UPS.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

I'm also considering building a wood and steel desk with the computer built into the desktop. Just an area to mount a motherboard tray and use the desk as the case. So only ethernet and power cables would be exposed. Same idea as those Lian li case desks or that Linus tech tips show did one. If anyone has done this and could give me some advice, it would be appreciated. My design and someone's much nicer design attached.

 

[Nobu]

Put the power cords in plastic spiral cable wrap to keep them from chewing that. Keep all the other cords hung up behind/under the desk so it's not at eye level or dangling, because they like to paw and bite at that kind of stuff. Anything you cannot hang up, put away in a drawer/cabinet or hang out of reach (with cords tucked/bagged so they don't jump at them). If you have to, run an extension cord or hub to under the monitor so you don't have to reach behind the pc to unplug stuff.

 

[ochadd]

Put the power cords in plastic spiral cable wrap to keep them from chewing that. Keep all the other cords hung up behind/under the desk so it's not at eye level or dangling, because they like to paw and bite at that kind of stuff. Anything you cannot hang up, put away in a drawer/cabinet or hang out of reach (with cords tucked/bagged so they don't jump at them). If you have to, run an extension cord or hub to under the monitor so you don't have to reach behind the pc to unplug stuff.

The back of my desk is open to the room. I sit with my back to the wall. I do have some wires inside wirelooms but they have chewed through them.

 

[Nobu]

Cabinet sounds like a good idea then. 🤷‍♂️

 

[Starfalcon]

I had a similar problem with my cat always chewing my cables too, nothing I did would stop her from destroying them. I tried wraps, hot sauce, just about everything I could use to discourage chewing. Nothing would stop her, the last straw was when she chewed through my ethernet cable and crashed a huge download on my computer. She ended up getting a kitty spanking and that finally stopped her chewing, she never did it again after that.

 

[travm]

Cut back on the catnip

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

You have a cat problem not a computer problem. Keep them out of the room or enclose the pc.

 

[Darunion]

Steel conduit or loom for wires. Also you can get cable raceways to run all your stuff through and mount that on the underside of the desk to keep them contained.

 

[GoldenTiger]

Pics of cats to help further diagnose the issue?

 

[ochadd]

Pics of cats to help further diagnose the issue?

 

[Krispy Kritter]

I doubt it's a grounding issue. From your description, you have damaged cables. Time to find a way to route cables where they aren't exposed.

 

[Wade88]

I've been having trouble for years with cats chewing on cords. Anytime I walk away from the computer and come back my screen flickers and audio will glitch as soon as I touch the mouse or keyboard. This also happens if a cat touches the desk, monitor, cables, or case. Happens all the time. I blew up two Schiit audio Magni Heresy units and two power supplies for each. They eventually let me return them and I got a Schiit Magnius. The flickering continues but this one hasn't blown up yet, been 1.5 years. I've since wired the steel desk frame to the computer chassis to try and help grounding. Using non conductive TOSLINK optical audio cable from soundcard to DAC/amp. I've taken a multimeter and verified correct polarity at the outlet. I run a $600 APC AVR UPS and I've tried surge protectors before and after the UPS.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.

I'm also considering building a wood and steel desk with the computer built into the desktop. Just an area to mount a motherboard tray and use the desk as the case. So only ethernet and power cables would be exposed. Same idea as those Lian li case desks or that Linus tech tips show did one. If anyone has done this and could give me some advice, it would be appreciated. My design and someone's much nicer design attached.

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I have cats and one of the reasons I have a wood desk besides being a ham is cats. My wife (who is a pretty good carpenter) helped me build channels for all the wires to go through, and a shroud at the back of the case that precludes their getting near it. After getting tired of that we moved all the computers into an unused room and use extension cables through the wall to monitors and HIDs etc. There's still armored cable runs to these but not as much as there was before.